The present invention relates to information recording and reproduction apparatuses such as data recorders, digital VTRs, DATs, optical disks, etc., and more particularly to such type of apparatus that is digital information recording and provided with a self-diagnosis information storage mechanism.
Conventionally, in the case of self-diagnosis of a DVR or DCR type digital recorder system for broadcasting, it has been practiced that when an error occurs in the recorder system or memory data, the error information and a time code for the time at which the error occurred are stored in the main body so that they can be read out by a control panel operation. In this case, although the generated error information is stored in a predetermined memory, since the capacity of this memory is limited, a method is employed wherein when the memory is full of data, they are erased in sequence from the oldest one.
Now, when a vital inconformity occurs which generally causes the operation of a recorder to cease, there occur various types of errors associated therewith. For example, if the reel motor cases to rotate while the tape is travelling, it is expected that after detecting the "reel motor failure," failures such as "undesired tape travelling," "data-read-after-write collation failure," "ID (an identification signal such as a time code showing the position of data recorded on the tape) read error," etc., will take place in sequence.
In addition, it is general that, if a recorder stops, the user often checks whether the power supply is properly connected, or tries to extract the tape, or is otherwise compelled to try to restart the recorder, and in such a case as this, even if the abnormal state is correctly identified in the first instance, the next time the recorder is connected, the result may be "tape doesn't move," and an erroneous judgment may be made.
Thus the conventional methods have had the problem that the memory becomes full due to the recording of non-essential errors such as incidental errors, errors generated when the user turns on the power again and the most important "initial vital errors" are erased by an overwrite.
In order to avoid this, methods such as mounting a memory with enough capacity not to fill up even if many errors occur, or providing a separate memory for storing transferred data at the time of generation of an abnormality (refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 1-243103), etc. can be considered, but in either case there are disadvantages associated with increases in the cost and size of the apparatus.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to obtain an information recording and reproduction apparatus having a memory mechanism for self-diagnosis information in which the memory capacity does not need to be increased and error information does not need to be erased.